Renacci ready to run for Senate after White House meeting

After receiving encouragement from top aides of President Donald Trump, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci is "very likely" to announce Thursday that he will run for the U.S. Senate, according to sources close to Ohio Republican politics.

The Wadsworth Republican, who had been in a three-way primary for the Republican nomination for governor, decided to run for Senate after a meeting Wednesday morning at the White House.

A source familiar with the meeting said Renacci, who was asked to visit the White House, was encouraged enough by senior White House political aides to drop his gubernatorial bid and run for the Senate.

"The White House indicated they think he would be a very good candidate for the United States Senate and laid out the reasons why they believe it," said the source.

The White House confirmed that Renacci visited. Renacci also has spoken to Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, about a potential bid.

A GOP source in Washington said Renacci also got a positive reception speaking with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and at the National Republican Senate Committee, the party's campaign arm.

Another possible candidate for the Senate campaign, Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance, also reportedly met with McConnell after talking to him by phone over the weekend, according to a GOP source on Capitol Hill. But privately, some party leaders acknowledge there would be problems with a Vance candidacy, including the fact that he did not vote for Trump.

Vance and Renacci could be competing for the seat now held by Democrat Sherrod Brown after GOP state Treasurer Josh Mandel suddenly dropped out of the race Friday, citing his wife's health.

Brown's campaign announced that he had raised more than $2.6 million in the last quarter of 2017, entering 2018 with $9.8 million on hand. The 2017 total marked Brown's best off-year of fundraising ever, the campaign said.

The timing of the announcement didn't seem coincidental, coming well before Brown had to make the figures public.

"J.D. is seriously considering a run at this point," said Jai Chabria, a former top adviser to Gov. John Kasich who now is working with Vance, who has never sought nor held elective office.

"There's been an unbelievable amount of support both from Ohio Republican leaders and people with an interest in the Ohio Senate race from a national perspective."

The conversations in Washington indicate that party leaders are continuing to shop for a candidate beyond wealthy Cleveland-area investment banker Mike Gibbons, who also is a political novice. Gibbons last week signaled a willingness to invest $5 million of his own money, and potentially more, in the race.

Gibbons' campaign spanked Vance on Wednesday for his failure to vote for Trump. Vance cast his ballot for Evan McMullin, an independent supported by conservatives opposed to Trump.

"Mike Gibbons was a co-chair for President Trump in Ohio and never wavered in his support for the president. J.D. Vance effectively voted for Hillary Clinton when he voted against President Trump. There's only one candidate in the race who would support the president, Mike Gibbons," said Mike Biundo, a Gibbons campaign consultant.

Vance, who has continued to take periodical verbal smacks at Trump, now works as an investment banker after the best-selling success of his memoir about growing up in a hardscabble working-class neighborhood of Middletown with family roots in Kentucky. His book was seen as a profile of frustrated white voters who turned to Trump.

Vance acknowledged last month that he has political aspirations, but said, "not now." In remarks at the Statehouse, Vance indicated he had no time for a potential campaign with a new child and his wife Usha's demanding job as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts

Brown refused Wednesday to weigh in on Vance or his book, saying, “I don’t think the voters of Ohio should have Mitch McConnell decide who the Republican candidate for the state of Ohio will be.”

Asked if he would comment on Vance’s book, Brown said he would not.

“I’m not going to weigh in on this primary,” he said. “I run on my record.”

Brown said he was “agnostic” about his ultimate Republican opponent.

“Mitch McConnell can pick his candidate and Donald Trump can pick his candidate for the Republican primary, but voters will actually make that decision, not Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell.”